Shared disability toilets with baby changing facilities

How would your mum change your baby then if out alone with them if no baby change in disabled loo??

With a parent stood in front of the changing table then nobody will be able to see anything.

Nope, no issue at all

I think in an ideal world places would have a disabled toilet with a baby change, and then a normal toilet with a baby change, and then your regular mens and women’s. Unfortunately it probably
comes down to space.

You can’t remove the baby change from the disabled completely because disabled people are parents too.

Can you not see an issue with this?

No way am I changing a baby's nappy in a public area with strangers in close proximity, especially unknown men. Nappy changing needs a degree of privacy.

thats down to the company designs, the asda and tescos i use have separate changing / toilets

Depends if OP simply asked ‘will you be long?’ Or if they said they really needed to use the loo. I’ve often had people knocking on the door of a baby change and not when it’s also the accessible toilet. Sometimes it’s elderly people who want to skip the main toilet queue by using the baby change room. Sometimes other mums who just want to check someone is actually in there.

I only know about getting a blue badge if you have 10 points or more on the mobility questions on PIP,

It's 8 on moving around or 10 on planning a journey (under a specific descriptor) in England and 12 for moving around in Scotland for an automatic entitlement. I get 14 between the 2 and don't qualify. DH gets 8 on moving around and does.

If I was changing my babies nappy and some one was knocking on the door - in the disabled toilets - asking me to hurry because they were in a bad way - I’d speed up pronto because I’m not a twat

I only know about getting a blue badge if you have 10 points or more on the mobility questions on PIP, so this probably doesn't apply to your gran, but you can apply for a blue badge if you get 10 points or more on the mobility element and that's usually by demonstrating that you cannot perform a task either a. Safely, b. Timely or c. Reliably

Because some conditions sporadically and intermittently cause problematic symptoms it can demonstrate that somebody cannot reliably perform an action like walking unaided or without regular breaks or in a median time frame, so for conditions such as arthritis, urgency, sensory sensitivities and elopement etc it's not possible to quantify these and so a person may qualify on the reliable parameter.

It sounds like you're perhaps judging not just your nan but a whole group of disabled people because they're not offering you consistency with their disability. I might have the wrong end of the stick but that is how I am perceiving your post.

I talk to my baby while changing his nappy, I'm doing both at once and talking to him doesn't make take any longer. Trust me, no one wants to be in a public toilet any longer than they need to be.
It feels like you are blaming the mum here, but she was using the space assigned to her by the supermarket you were in. Although most supermarket toilets I know all have baby changing separate from disabled. Rather than complain on Mumsnet, complain to the head office of the supermarket and ask for separate spaces

There need to be more public toilets in general. Lots have closed down as councils can no longer afford to clean them or stop them being vandalised (sad that people do this). Additionally more unisex changing places for children so that either parent can do it and separate to disabled toilets. Hoist toilets would be better so that disabled parents have the height adjustable table in them too.

What did you expect the parent to do, realistically? I chat to my baby when changing his nappy, it speeds things up to distract him as otherwise he starts fussing and it makes the job harder. Sometimes nappy changes take a while.

It’s bad planning by the place you were in. I used a baby change in a disabled toilet today because DS had leaked through his nappy. I was in a big department store. It was the only baby change facility. What else should I have done?

It's always about space

Putting a baby change in the ladies or men's invariably means losing a toilet cubicle space

And there are strict rules about the minimum number of WC pans per occupancy - you aren't allowed to go below that or make an existing situation worse

Therefore it's easier to put it in the accessible toilet.

Most aren't called "disabled toilets" anyway these days - they are accessible and jointly designated for baby changing use.

Not your fault OP and not the mother who was in there before you either

When parents campaigned for facilities what did they get promised?

There should be baby change in the men's and the women's, AND the disabled.

I'm so sorry this happened to you.

I had to change by baby yesterday in the cafes toilet. It's just one large room for everyone to use. Unfortunately my baby and shit everywhere and I mean everywhere so it took me a while to sort her out, hope it wasn't me OP.

Sounds awful OP - but so often the disabled and baby change are shared, so what are people with small children to do?

Im v aware when using a shared facility that someone else may need it more urgently than me - but I do also need access to these facilities myself.

Yes they should be exclusive.

disabled people ideally should never have to wait for the only toilet they can access because of the impact of having to wait.

Agree - and to add an adult dealing with that by themselves.

Sorry OP that must have been very distressing. As others have said I think it's a space constraint issue. Thank you for highlighting this though, it gas certainly made me think. I have in the past used the disabled loo when taking my then 3 year old to the toilet - because I had the pram and bags (or suitcase at the airport) with me and couldn't fit into the cubicle. My son is autistic and hates going to the toilet/hates the noise of the hand dryer/hates the smell/ sometimes soils himself and needs to be changed and that is easier to do in a quiet room with more space than a small cubicle when he's thrashing about in anger or overwhelmed. But none of these things are quick. If someone knocked on the door, I'd be out ASAP. I think it highlights overall how inadequate facilities are.

It’s strange how people are posting about how hard it’s to do a complete change of a baby.

imagine having to do that with an adult!!

There's much more room for prams, handbags, changing gear and possibly toddlers as well as less comings and goings in those toilets which means it's much safer for all concerned. Most are available for different needs and users, they should not be exclusive. Would you be so miffed if it had been a disabled person who'd been taking up the space? Also I'm sure she wasn't in there for the good of her health, most parents chat to their babies while changing. They don't just hang out in there to blether with their child!

This would put me off and make it even harder to access toilets. I'm autistic and I can't communicate over a weird video - even now some have buttons for speakers to talk to someone to let you in and I could never do that.

But this situation isn’t a “disabled toilets are for disabled people” scenario. It was a disabled & baby changing facility so both people were equally right to use it for one of its intended purposes.